Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Life with ADD

Yesterday reminded me how difficult life is when you have ADD. I didn't realize how impaired my life was until I started taking medications for ADD. When I go off my meds I don't always see the effects, but my family sure does!

Last night, I was trying to do a simple task of chopping onions for dinner. Ben was at the table asking me a question about when I could do something. I couldn't listen to his question and chop the onions. My brain couldn't process both tasks at the same time.

A person with ADD can juggle several tasks at a time as long as full attention isn't given to any of them. Imagine the carnival act where the person is balancing a stack of plates, twirling a baton and has a ring swinging around his arm...as long as a person with ADD isn't thinking too much about the total process of the task, it can be done. But the minute he starts looking at the baton, all the other tasks stop.

Noise is a big trigger for me. I can't handle too many sounds at once. It's like brain overload. Two children trying to talk to me is too many. I know all parents hate their children talking over each other, but the noise for me prevents my brain from telling my mouth to tell the kids to stop. It's like an audio strobe light. I wish I could explain it better than that.

It is incredibly frustrating for everyone to have mama's head short circuiting because of too much stimuli!

2 comments:

it gets to me too. I have brain overload and just want to scream! 4:00 is my shut down. Its frustrating! I never considered myself ADD but maybe I am, or that is just life as a mom? I don't know. I wished there was a cure. Just think how HF feels! Wow. love you girl!